LONLINESS OR SOLITUDE

1/22/16

'And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.' Mark 1:35
A solitary person is alone, and yet can be together with himself and therefore, enjoys his own company. However, in loneliness, a person is actually alone, seemingly deserted by all others.

When someone is in solitude, they may actually be set free. Jesus often went alone away from the disciples and others, to find a quiet place to pray. He needed to hear the voice of the Father, and to know what next he was to do.

We can feel ultimately alone, even in a crowd, or among our friends or families, at times. Being around people does not necessarily prevent someone from feeling lonely. They may feel isolated for many reasons. A person may feel like they just don’t “fit-in” with others because they sense they are different from them in some way.

Someone may have lost a spouse recently, or have gone through a divorce, and now they feel ultimately alone, and the grief may be more than they can bear. Now they are alone more than they have been for years and they may not know how to be alone with themselves. In time, they may learn how to be alone with themselves, and to treasure those times.

But God understands the emptiness that you are experiencing and he wants to fill that void with himself. The company of the Holy Spirit is more comforting and alive, than the touch of any person, for he resides within us.

Learn to enjoy those times that you can have alone. Think about those things that you have learned each day and value them. Learn to forgive those that have hurt you or that you have hurt. Consider those that you love, and hold them up in your thoughts and prayers. Then your moments that you have alone, will be treasured times. They will become like a string of pearls that enhance your life with others.

'There is a pleasure in the pathless woods.
There is a rapture on the lovely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and music in its roar.
I love not man the less, but Nature more.”

George Gordon Byron

'A man can be himself only so long as he is alone,

and if he does not love solitude, he will not
love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that
he is really free.'

Arthur Schopenhauer

'Guard well your spare moments . They are like
uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value
will never be known. Improve them and they will
become the brightest gems in a useful life.

Emerson

Stephen Hanson